The Vicissitudes of Life

“Thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds.” PsaLM xxxvi. 5.

Anp is there anything more fickle and changeable than the clouds? The transformation of their outline is continual. If we try to sketch a cloud, it is almost gone before our materials are ready. So fleeting is the form that we can watch the swift transition. And yet these ephemeral presences are here chosen to express the faithfulness of God. Clouds are not the creation of caprice. They are not shaped by chance temperature, or by lucky and unlucky winds and tempests. In all their fickleness there is an abiding purpose. In the apparent chaos there is an established throne. Every transformation obeys asovereignrule. ‘‘ His faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds.” Life, too, is full of vicissitudes. Our circumstances are as changeable as the clouds. Everything is in flux. We are never really settled”; a radiant circumstance suddenly melts like a fleecy cloud, and another circumstance appears full of dark menace and frown

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—‘*Change and decay in all around I see.” And yet the swift and almost fierce transitions are bound together by an invisible bond of divine faithfulness. They are more than a chain; they are the highway of grace. Through all the many coils and complications of an Alpine rope there runs the unbroken red strand which betokens its genuineness and strength. And through all the complicated web of the believer’s circumstances, with their swiftly changing patterns, there runs the enduring strand of divine fidelity, the blood-red strand of sacrificial love and care.

And thus our changing lot is the home of the unchanging God. One purpose pervades the passing seasons. It links together spring-time and winter, and sunshine and shower. My fragmentary life may be a glorious whole in the unfailing truth and mercy of the eternal God. ‘‘O Thou who changeth not, abide with me.”